Newbiedude's 1st grow - ILGM Banana Kush Auto's

First, the setup. I have a 2x4x80 Gorilla lite tent. The exhaust fan is a 4 inch with the carbon filter and associated ducting. The light for now is a LED blurple, Bestvaled is the brand and it is their so called DC 2000 watt light. I have since started reading the blurple lights AAA thread on here. That thread is a real hoot! Anyhow, the light is being replaced. According to UPS my HLG 350R should be here on this Monday coming. I had to go buy a cool mist humidifier to get the RH up in the tent. The RH in my house usually resides in the 35-45% neighborhood. I have one small fan mounted to help move the air around. May need to get another one but will wait on opinions here before putting in another fan.

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Now for the pots, soil and seed progress so far. I have 2-3 gallon fabric pots filled with FFOF. I placed one of the Banana Kush auto seeds into a root cube and then the root cube into the fabric pot filled with FFOF. That was late evening on Monday the 12th of this month. I did not have the light yet to place in the tent but it was supposed to be here the next day. Well, good 'ol UPS did it to me again and didn’t make the delivery the next day. So the light did come on that Wednesday and I installed it in the tent. Don’t know if that lack of light for 2 days messed with the seed or not. Anyway, that Friday morning, basically 3 and 1/2 days the first plant popped it’s head above the root cube. The second seed still had not popped it’s head out. About 2 days after the first one popped it’s head out, I pulled the cube containing the second seed out of the pot, spread the seed hole open and the seed had sprouted but appeared to be stuck in there, so I pulled the seed whole open some and the second plant made it out of the root cube a day and a half or so later. So the second seed is running basically 2 days behind the first seed.

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I have been using a shot glass to water around the root cube and trying very hard not to over water. I have been spreading the small amount of water around the plant to try to encourage the fledgling root system to reach out to the water. I have only been adding water as the top soil appears to dry out. Trying not to over do the drying out part cause the youngun’s need there refreshment. They are working hard after all. :sweat_smile:

So, here are my 2 young ladies as of 6-7 days of them popping there heads out.


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The nutes I have purchased for the future growth of these gals are FF Trio and I also purchased the powder nutrients from ILGM. On the fence about which one to use when the time comes. I’m sure the members guidance here will show me the path to take.

Both nutrient lines are excellent, most of us have switched to Jacks 321, but a lot of us still use fox farms.

Sounds like you paid attention in class. Good for you.

LOL, my attention span is measured in nano seconds but I do occasionally manage to pick up on some things. After reading a lot of the posts on these forums, watering is a subject that seems to be constantly harped on. Either too much or not enough. I’m trying to be careful but sometimes I get this leak between my hand and my brain at the elbow. We’ll see.

Presumably you’re watering very lightly right now in the seedling stage. Pick up your bags and get a feel for their weight. Once you start watering heavy you’re going to be able to easily feel all of that water weight in them.

You will be able to very quickly feel the difference between the wet and dry weight and can use that to help gauge when its time. I thought this sounded a little crazy at first, but it absolutely helps / works growing in soil. :wink:

You’re going to want to water just just a little runoff starts (not too much so as not to deplete the OF nutes built in. After ~6 weeks when they deplete and you start adding your own, you’ll want to target 10-20% runoff.

yep, thanks CygnusX. I have a third fabric bag unused and FFOF left so I am going to fill it with FFOF when the time comes to compare the weight differences.

You certainly can, but trust that you likely won’t need to take it that far. The difference will be VERY obvious and you’re not looking for completely dry before the next watering anyway. I worried about this at first as well with all the comments on overwatering, but the weight trick was easy and reliable for me.

You’ll get to the point that you can just lift a side of the bag and you’ll know.

not much going on today with it. just watered one of them. new light should be here on monday if ups can actually make an on time delivery for a change.

here is an 8 day old pic of this one:

and here is a 6 day old pic of this one:

my hlg came in late this evening and is mounted. photone app is showing between 45-50 DLI. Used the photone app to set height of the new light.

here is a pic of the 10 day old:

here is a pic of the 8 day old gal:

nothing going on again other than watching intently and watering when soil dries. here are the pics 2 days later. hlg light sure seems to be doing it’s job or maybe the plants root system is getting into all of that ffof goodness or a combo of the two but it’s definitely doing better now.

here is girl 1 at 12 days old now:

here is girl 2 at 10 days old:

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here are my girls today at 14 and 12 days each:


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a brown spot has developed on one leaf on each plant overnight. the younger of the 2 plants developed 2 of these brown spots on the same leaf. i made a post in the autoflower support forum for advice. hopefully someone will reply.

@Nicky hope you don’t mind the tag. question for you. i want to fim my plants. they are 16 and 14 days old. is that too young? they are auto’s. that is from the time they popped their heads over the soil.

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another question about lighting. i am using an HLG 350R. my plants seem to me to be really short and stocky. when i placed the light in the tent i placed it according to the DLI value at the top of the plant from the light. i’m running between 45-50 DLI. is that too much and maybe why they aren’t getting any taller or should I go with manufactures spec of 15-24 inches? currently it is about 14 inces over the tops of the plant to get that 45-50 DLI number. also running a light schedule of 18/6.

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I recommend FIM’ing at the 4th/5th node so it will depend on how many nodes your plants have.

Here is a DLI chart

However I prefer to run at 60 DLI until late flower when I slow it down to 40-45. Mileage will vary depending on your environment and the genetics of your plants.
A thing to keep in mind is less light = more stretch, and a healthy node space is abiut 1/2 inch (although I prefer to have my first few nodes tight as I belive it low’s more growth under ground and keeps the plant strong before allowing it to stretch a bit).
Try 25 DLI and see how that goes.

Solid details given for asking a question so my response was hopefully informative and to the point for you as it definitely made replying for me easy. Tag away anytime I’ll help if I can.